The World Cup is the largest sports event outside the summer Olympics: the progress of the 32 countries which qualify for the finals is watched by billions all over the globe. Since the very first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, there have been 18 finals, held every four years (with a 12-year break over the World War II period). The World Cup in South Africa will be the 19th.

Brian Glanville, the distinguished journalist and World Cup historian, has written a fascinating history of the event. Here are the men who played, the goals they scored, the triumphs, the failures, the shocks and the scandals. Here are the stories of heroes—Pelé, Eusebio, Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer, Johann Cruyff, Diego Maradona and many more—as well as the villains, the managers, the referees and the football politicians.

Sir Bobby Charlton is almost as well-known throughout the world as football itself. His trademark—striding forward from the halfway line, shimmying past defenders and unleashing rasping blockbusters into the top corner of the net—made him a true legend of world football.

His dedication and will were unparalleled as he survived and overcame the tragedy of the Munich air crash in 1958 to become the cornerstone of both England’s 1966 World Cup winners and Manchester United’s 1968 European Cup-winning team. While both of those great sides included other sublimely gifted players, such as George Best and Bobby Moore, Charlton stood out as both a great talent and a great ambassador for football.

His achievements are remarkable. He scored a record 49 England goals and also won 106 caps, a record at the time. He played over 600 league games for Manchester United, scoring just one shy of 200 league goals. During almost twenty years as a Manchester United player, he won three League titles and the FA Cup in 1963 before going on to play for and manage Preston North End. But Charlton’s heart remained with Manchester United and he rejoined the Old Trafford club as a director, a position he still holds. He was knighted in 1994 and remains one of the most popular British players of all time—a hero to Manchester United and England fans.
– Barnaby Chesterman

BRIAN GLANVILLE

Author of Story of the World Cup, which has regularly been appearing since 1973, now with Faber. Writer of GOAL!, the official film of the 1966 World Cup. Football correspondent and sometime first sports columnist of the Sunday Times, 1958–1992. Then sports columnist of The People, 1992–96. Now again with the Sunday Times. Has covered the last 11 World Cups. Author of many novels including the juvenile Goalkeepers Are Different, in print for some 25 years, and The Rise of Gerry Logan and The Dying of the Light, both with football themes. For many decades English Correspondent of daily Corriere dello Sport of Rome. Writer of BBC TV documentary European Centre Forward, protagonist Gerry Hitchens then of Torino and England. It won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival of 1963.

BOB WILSON

Born in Chesterfield, Bob Wilson found success playing in goal at school and gained England schoolboy honours in 1957.

After qualifying as a physical education teacher at Loughborough College, he signed for Arsenal in 1963. He made more than 300 first-team appearances, helping the Gunners win the European Fairs cup in 1970 and one year later the coveted League Championship and FA Cup ‘double’. He also became the first English-born player to be capped for Scotland.

In 1974 he embarked on a second career in sports journalism for BBC Television. He presented Football Focus for 20 years and was also a regular presenter of Grandstand, Sportsnight and Breakfast Sport. In August 1994 he was lured to the rival channel as ITV’s football presenter.

An FA Full Badge Coach since 1967, he has specialised in the coaching of goalkeepers for the past 26 years. During that time, the goalkeepers at Arsenal, Queens Park Rangers, Southampton, Tottenham and Luton have benefited from his training methods. He ran his own Goalkeeping School for youngsters from 1982 to 1995.

He has been Chairman of the London Football Coaches Association since 1988. In 1989 he was awarded an honorary degree by Loughborough University for services to football. In 1997 he was appointed to the board of Governors of the University of Hertfordshire. In January 2001 an honorary doctorate was conferred on him by the University of Derby.

He has written many books on football, mainly involving goalkeeping, his last publication being a history of goalkeeping entitled, You’ve Got To Be Crazy, published by Arthur Barker.

In August 1999 he and his wife Megs launched the Willow Foundation, a charity in memory of their daughter Anna who died in December 1998. The foundation exists to provide special days to young adults who are seriously ill. Bob and Megs have two sons; John, a radio journalist and Robert, a photographer.

The music on this recording is taken from the NAXOS and MARCO POLO catalogues

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